What is the best hotel? The best washing machine? A look at online opinions supposedly helps further. But the star ratings can be misleading.
Berlin (dpa / tmn) - Renate Holland, owner of several gyms, received only 2.5 out of 5 possible stars on the platform Yelp. And that despite many mostly positive reviews.
She felt treated unfairly and brought an action before the Munich Higher Regional Court. The reason for the bad rating? The algorithm of the rating portal for restaurants, service providers and shops rated only two of 76 contributions as helpful or authentic.
Users only saw at second glance that there were more than the two mediocre opinions. The supposed average rating is deceptive. Renate Holland lost in the last instance before the Federal Court of Justice, but examples like this show: "It is very difficult for consumers to decide which ratings are real and which are not," said Tatjana Halm from the Bavarian Consumer Center. Nevertheless, strategies help you to find your way in the star jungle.
Distinguish reputable portals from dubious ones
Trusted portals and retailers have no interest in publishing fake reviews because that damages the reputation. According to Halm, they can be recognized by clear information about who is allowed to submit a rating and how it comes about. So-called verified ratings speak for the reliability of an offer.
Dubious portals, on the other hand, can promote a large number of positive reviews in order to appear relevant to their advertising partners or to improve their own image. Whoever rewards users with vouchers for positive reviews is manipulative, says Halm. "You should look at different portals and make comparisons."
It is worth taking a look behind the star and point scale. It is important to take a close look at individual evaluators, advises Halm. There are people who value a lot. If someone rates a large number of shops and restaurants in different locations at short intervals, this is an indication of fake ratings. The same applies to a large number of negative reviews, followed by several positive ones. In such a case, the suspicion arises that someone is actively trying to compensate for the bad judgments, explains the consumer advocate.
Online reviews do not reflect reality
Halm considers it questionable whether online reviews provide a representative picture of reality at all. In fact, a study by TU Dortmund last year found that customer reviews do not reflect the quality of electrical products well.
The conclusion of study author Sören Köcher: "You shouldn't rely on the average ratings as a quality indicator." In the approximately 1300 electrical products compared, there was hardly any match between professional judgments by Stiftung Warentest and customer ratings from Amazon.
Customers tended to report particularly positive or negative reactions. "That's why we rarely find medium ratings with three or two stars," says Köcher. In this case, users would simply have no motivation to write. He recommends reading individual evaluations and not looking at the calculated overall rating. "It could be things that have nothing to do with the product at all, such as packaging damage or late delivery."
Would you rather trust algorithms?
In addition to Yelp, other companies such as Amazon or the hotel portal Holidaycheck also use automatic methods to recognize advertising reviews. According to the consumer advice center, this is a quality feature. But it would be better if people also checked individual reviews and there was a reporting function of fakes for users. All three companies offer the latter option. Amazon and Holidaycheck also use test teams.
Renate Holland's case shows that such algorithms are not always correct. Even though, according to the BGH ruling, Yelp is allowed to rely on an automated selection, the Munich Higher Regional Court had first ruled: Sorting out so many reviews resulted in "not a helpful, but a distorted overall picture".